Principal Investigator(s):United States Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Summary:

In response to a growing concern about hate crimes, the
United States Congress enacted the Hate Crime Statistics Act of
1990. The Act requires the attorney general to establish guidelines
and collect, as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program,
data "about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race,
religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where
appropriate the crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter,
forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation,
arson, and destruction, damage... (more info)

In response to a growing concern about hate crimes, the
United States Congress enacted the Hate Crime Statistics Act of
1990. The Act requires the attorney general to establish guidelines
and collect, as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program,
data "about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race,
religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where
appropriate the crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter,
forcible rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation,
arson, and destruction, damage or vandalism of property." Hate crime
data collection was required by the Act to begin in calendar year 1990
and to continue for four successive years. In September 1994, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act amended the Hate Crime
Statistics Act to add disabilities, both physical and mental, as
factors that could be considered a basis for hate crimes. Although the
Act originally mandated data collection for five years, the Church
Arson Prevention Act of 1996 amended the collection duration "for each
calendar year," making hate crime statistics a permanent addition to
the UCR program. As with the other UCR data, law enforcement agencies
contribute reports either directly or through their state reporting
programs. Information contained in the data includes number of victims
and offenders involved in each hate crime incident, type of victims,
bias motivation, offense type, and location type.

Universe:
Hate crime incidents reported by law enforcement agencies
in the United States.

Data Types:
event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

The original hierarchical file has been split into two files: a Batch Header File and an Incident Record File. The Batch Header File contains a record for each law enforcement agency whether or not they reported an incident. The Batch Header File variables are merged into the Incident Record File for those agencies that reported an incident.

Each victim-type variable has been split into eight separate flag variables to record each victim type. Previously, the variables were eight-character strings that contained the first letter of each victim type in any order.

Methodology

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

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Located within ICPSR, NACJD is sponsored by the
Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice, and the Office
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of
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